Where theres a Will

Durbin presses for State Department investigation into journalists murder

Brad Will, a native of Kenilworth, was videotaping a demonstration in Oaxaca when he was gunned down.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WILL FAMILY

Untitled Document
Joining several other lawmakers, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin
has requested an investigation into the shooting death of freelance
journalist and Illinois native Brad Will. A native of Kenilworth, Ill., Will was documenting
social upheaval in the Mexican state of Oaxaca when he was shot and killed
last fall when police opened fire on protesters [see John Ross, “The
killing of Brad Will,” Aug. 9]. In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
last month, Durbin asked the State Department to pressure the Mexican
federal government to investigate the death of Will and four others who
died on Oct. 27, 2006. “I understand that murder is a state crime in
Mexico. However, since sufficient action has not been taken on the state
level, I urge you to press the Mexican federal government to swiftly
complete a thorough investigation of the killing of Bradley Will and the
Oaxaca protestors,” Durbin writes. Two days after Will’s murder, a local
prosecutor issued warrants for two police officers seen on video firing in
Will’s direction. Two weeks later, the officers were freed and the
prosecutor instead blamed protesters for Will’s death.Renata Rendón, Amnesty International’s
advocacy director for the Americas, says that she heard about Will’s
case when she traveled to Mexico in December. When she returned to Washington, D.C., she began
scheduling meetings on Capitol Hill and corresponding with Will’s
family. “I raised Brad’s case in the broader
context of social unrest in Mexico, the violent trend to silence people
speaking out about injustice, and Mexico’s weak criminal-justice
system,” Rendón says. In his letter to Rice, Illinois’ senior senator
writes: “The killing of Bradley Will took place in an environment
that your 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices says is
‘extremely dangerous’ for journalists.”Nine reporters were murdered in Mexico last year, says
Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that advocates for
press freedom. Only Iraq was more dangerous for journalists, the group
says. Earlier this year, another Illinois lawmaker,
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, also sent Rice a letter, signed by
three others members of Congress, expressing concern over human-rights
abuses in Mexico, including the state of Oaxaca. Schakowsky asked Rice to call upon Mexico’s
attorney general, Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, “to ensure a prompt and
impartial investigation into the killing of Brad Will and in identifying
and prosecuting those responsible for his death.”U.S. Rep. José Serrano, D-N.Y., also wrote to
Rice, saying that Will’s death poses a larger questions about how
aggressively Mexican government would pursue “a cessation of murder,
beatings, and torture carried out by police and paramilitary groups in
Oaxaca, Guadalajara, San Salvador, and Atenco.” Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com